Laptop Swap is Top Notch!

February 26, 2020 | Time: | Location: | Category: News

After being involved in a client's initiative to replace 800 staff laptops quickly and easily, we were delighted to be featured recently in their internal news bulletin - you can read full details below (copy included with permission):

The Laptop Swap was the brain child of the Scottish Government’s iTECS IT Support Services’ (SG ITSS) team, after they saw an opportunity to improve the experience colleagues had across Scottish Government (SG) when it came to updating and replacing their kit.

A spokesperson from SG ITSS tells us more:

Every 3-5 years ITECS carries out a rolling cycle of replacing staff laptops to ensure colleagues have the most up to date software and applications to carry out their work and remain safe and secure as they do so.

The previous arrangement was that ITECS would set a time in each person’s diary to meet them at their place of work. But when looking deeper into this, we saw there were a lot of cancellations as people are very busy and it took several attempts to complete the change-over. This and other factors meant it was very inefficient and resource intensive for ITECS staff and not a good experience for the customers.

Faced with an 800 laptop replacement I knew something had to change so we created the Laptop Swap Shop.

Working with our partners in Capito and HP Inc, via the Scottish Procurement National framework for mobile devices, we pre-built a set of 800 replacement laptops with all the updated core programmes staff need to access service such as the Office Suite and eRDM.

We set up a series of Swap Shop stalls across SG’S main offices and, manned by our Capito colleagues, staff from across SG could come along at a time of their choosing so they could simply ‘collect and go’.

This approach put the customer in control at a time and place that suited them, making it flexible and easy to do. But the true test is hearing from our customers, so when we asked for feedback, we were delighted with the results.

Overall, out of the 265 SG staff who responded, people rated their experience of using the Swap Shop at an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars and 90% said they would like to use that system again.

With Capito staff remaining on hand, if there were any problems, colleagues could come back to the desk to ask for help and support.

The benefit of Capito support is that it made best use of professional resources and skills, enabling ITECs specialists to focus on the services that needed their time.

Mark Gibson, Capito’s Managing Director, tells us:

We have worked in partnership with HP for the past decade so are well aware of the challenges that a deployment of this size can bring. We pride ourselves on bringing an agile and dynamic approach to minimise any disruption so that our clients can continue ‘business as usual’. We were thrilled to see such a positive response to this initiative.

HP are delighted to support ITECS in delivering a great service and benefit to Scottish Government staff. We continue to provide flexibility in our services and approach via our partner Capito, whilst offering best in class technology with latest energy management, environmental standards and excellent value for money via the Scottish Procurement National Framework for Mobile devices and associated services.

All the learnings and opportunities to improve will be taken forward for future Swap Shop service exercises.